of fiction of our day with other than feelings of regret for the causes which led to it.

It is pleasing, however, to learn that the differences between them were ended before Mr. Thackeray's death. Singularly enough, this happy circumstance occurred only a few days before the time when it would have been too late. The two great authors met by accident in the lobby of a club. They suddenly turned and saw each other, and the unrestrained impulse of both was to hold out the hand of forgiveness and fellowship. With that hearty grasp the difference which estranged them ceased for ever. This must have been a great consolation to Mr. Dickens, when he saw his great brother laid in the earth at Kensal Green; and no one who read the beautiful and affecting article on Thackeray, from the hand of Mr. Dickens, which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine, can doubt that all trace of this painful affair had then vanished.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ROYAL DRAMATIC COLLEGE.-" ALL THE YEAR

ROUND."

E turn now to a more pleasant theme. On the 21st July, 1858, a public meeting was held at

the Princess's Theatre, for the purpose of establishing the now famous Royal Dramatic College. Mr. Charles Kean was the chairman, and Dickens delivered one of his excellent speeches on a topic ever dear to him-the theatrical profession. Charles Kean was then conducting his Shakspearian revivals--those splendid pageantries and archæological displays which we all remember at this theatre twelve years ago— and Dickens, with his usual tact, turned the circumstance to account in his speech. The play then being performed was the "Merchant of Venice," and, in concluding, the speaker remarked, "I could not but reflect, whilst Mr. Kean was speaking, that in an hour or two from this time the spot upon which we are now assembled will be transformed into the scene of a crafty and a cruel bond. I knew that, a few hours hence, the Grand Canal of Venice will flow, with picturesque fidelity, on the very spot where I now stand dryshod, and that the 'quality of mercy'

will be beautifully stated to the Venetian Council by a learned young doctor from Padua;-on these very boards on which we now enlarge upon the quality of charity and sympathy. Knowing this, it came into my mind to consider how different the real bond of to-day from the ideal bond of to-night. Now, all generosity, all forbearance, all forgetfulness of little jealousies and unworthy divisions, all united action for the general good. Then, all selfishness, all malignity, all cruelty, all revenge, and all evil,-now all good. Then, a bond to be broken within the compass of a few-three or four-swiftly passing hours,-now, a bond to be valid and of good effect generations hence."

The committee's labours were successful, and an elegant building, in the Elizabethan style, at Maybury, was the result. On June 1st, 1860, the late Prince Consort, in laying the foundation stone, spoke of the Dramatic College as conferring "a benefit upon the public as well as upon the stage, by aiding a profession from which the community at large derived national entertainment." Five years after, on 5th June, the Prince of Wales inaugurated the Central Hall of the College. The annual Fancy Fair at the Crystal Palace, and the junketings thereat, it is needless to say, are the means of adding a large accession to the funds.

During the autumn months of this year, the readings were continued in London, and at various large towns in England and Ireland; the novelist

receiving both applause and money to a greater extent than ever.

It was in November, 1858, that he allowed his name to be put in nomination for the high office of Lord Rector of Glasgow University. His rivals were Lord Lytton (who was chosen to the office), and Lord Shaftesbury. The result of the poll was:

Lord Lytton. 216.

Lord Shaftesbury.

2.03.

Dickens.

68.

The cause of this large minority is now not remembered, but it is more than probable that Dickens took no special pains to secure votes in his own behalf.

During the following month he was entertained at a public dinner by the citizens of Coventry, and received from them a very handsome gold watch, as a testimony of their gratitude for his reading, in aid of the Coventry Institute, twelve months before. The day previously he had presided at Manchester, in aid of an Institute there.

Early in 1859 a dispute arose betwixt Mr. Dickens and his publishers, originating mainly in the unfortunate family disagreement to which we alluded on a former page, and in consequence of this the conductor of Household Words resolved that the journal should cease, and he would close business relations with Messrs. Bradbury and Evans. Mr. Dickens advertised that the discontinuance of Household Words would take place on March 28th. Messrs. Bradbury and Evans filed a Bill in Chancery, and the matter

was heard by the Master of the Rolls. Both parties refusing to sell their interest, the winding up of the publication was directed. Dickens owned five-eighths, and had command over another eighth. At the sale, on 16th May, by Mr. Hodgson of Chancery Lane, the property, after a spirited contest, was knocked down to Dickens (represented by Mr. Arthur Smith), for £3,550. In the last number of Household Words, introducing the forthcoming periodical, he wrote:

"He knew perfectly well, knowing his own rights, and his means of attaining them, that it could not be but that this work must stop, if he chose to stop it. He therefore announced, many weeks ago, that it would be discontinued on the day on which this final number bears date. The public have read a great deal to the contrary, and will observe that it has not in the least affected the result."

Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, to justify their proceedings, published a statement, affirming

"That Household Words stopped against their will, and mentioned the appearance of Once a Week,—remarking, at the same time, that their business relations with Dickens had commenced in 1836; that, in 1844, they acquired an interest in all works he might write, or in any periodical he might originate, during a term of seven years, and that under this agreement they became possessed of a joint though unequal share of Household Words, which started in 1850; that on the publication of his manifesto as to his conjugal differences, they understood from a friend that he had resolved to break off his connections with them, by reason of its non-insertion in Punch, in which they had not thought fit to do so, Punch being entirely a comic publication; that in the November he summoned a meeting of the proprie